Arctic Monkeys Finally Working On New Album

We were pleased to discover this week that the Arctic Monkeys are in the studio recording their sixth album, the first new Monkeys music since 2013’s brilliantAM. Can’t wait to see what the lads have in store this time out. They burst onto the scene in 2005 delivering their infectious mix of post-punk power pop that stood out among the crowd because of lead man Alex Turner’s crisp songwriting, smart lyrics and charismatic Sheffield swagger.

The problem is that Turner’s talents are too big to hold within the confines of one band, and he’s spent a lot of time over the past 12 years dabbling in other projects that allow him to stretch his musical wings. His most notable side project is in The Last Shadow Puppets, a band that released albums and toured in 2008 and 2016 delivering a sophisticated, almost experimental blend of Rock, Classical and 1960s movie soundtracks. Last year’s record made our Best Albums of 2016 list.

With a mercurial talent like his there are no guarantees of anything, so while Turner kept insisting that the Arctic Monkeys would indeed be continuing at some point down the line, the band’s future kind of remained in question. But this week we got the first real confirmation that the Monkeys are recording again, from, of all places, On The Ride, a motorcycle website. Monkeys’ bassist Nick O’Malley, a motorbike enthusiast, told the site the band started recording at a “secret location” in September, and that if the new album isn’t out next year “we’ve got problems”.

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Speculation has it that the AM are recording with Josh Homme in his desert studios in California, and this is even more reason for excitement. The brains behind the Queens of the Stone Age has actually worked with the Monkeys before, producing their 2009 album Humbug, but that was one of his first production jobs. Since that time, Homme’s horizons have been expanded after working with Iggy Pop and Mark Ronson, and he will surely bring more to the table for Turner and the lads to play with. Let’s hope it all pans out this way.

Today, people say Rock is dead, but Rich says bullshit to that. “We’ve got people like Jack White, Beck and Jeff Tweedy who are worthy carriers of the torch that was lit so long ago. Taking the big tent perspective, I would argue that Rock is as vital today as it’s ever been.” You can reach him at rich@rocknuts.net.